Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 85–92
Quality of diet is associated with insulin resistance in the Cree (Eeyouch) indigenous population of northern Québec
Highlights
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- We investigate diet quality and insulin resistance in Cree of northern Québec.
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- Three dietary patterns are identified: inland, coastal and junk food.
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- Traditional diet is associated with higher n-3 fatty acids and contaminants.
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- Poor diet quality (junk food) is accompanied by greater insulin resistance.
Abstract
Background and aims
Indigenous
people worldwide have a greater disease burden than their
non-aboriginal counterparts with health challenges that include
increased obesity and higher prevalence of diabetes. We investigate the
relationships of dietary patterns with nutritional biomarkers, selected
environmental contaminants and measures of insulin resistance in the
Cree (Eeyouch) of northern Québec Canada.
Methods and results
The
cross-sectional ‘Nituuchischaayihitaau Aschii: A Multi-Community
Environment-and-Health Study in Eeyou Istchee’ recruited 835 adult
participants (≥18 y) from 7 communities in the James Bay region of
northern Québec. The three dietary patterns identified by principal
component analysis (PCA) were: inland and coastal patterns with loadings
on traditional foods, and a junk food pattern with high-fat and
high-sugar foods. We investigated dietary patterns scores (in quantiles)
in relation with nutritional biomarkers, environmental contaminants,
anthropometry, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and insulin, and
insulin resistance.
Homeostatic model assessment
(HOMA-IR) was used as surrogate markers of insulin resistance. ANCOVA
ascertained relationships between dietary patterns relationship and
outcomes. Greater scores for the traditional patterns were associated
with higher levels of n-3 fatty acids, mercury and polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) (P trend <0.001). Higher scores for the
junk food pattern were associated with lower levels of PCBs and Vitamin
D, but higher fasting plasma insulin and HOMA-IR.
Conclusion
Our
results suggest that poor diet quality accompanied greater insulin
resistance. Impacts of diet quality on insulin resistance, as a sign of
metabolism perturbation, deserve more attention in this indigenous
population with high rates of obesity and diabetes.
Keywords
- Insulin;
- Dietary patterns;
- Hyperinsulinemia;
- Diabetes
- Corresponding
author. School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, McGill University,
21111 Lakeshore, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 3V9, Canada. Tel.:
+1 514 398 7808; fax: +1 514 398 7739.
- †
- Deceased.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
